Amendment in Marriage Acts #indianlaws #marriagelaws

A new ground of divorce has been added to the existing list of grounds for dissolution of marriage

Amendments have been made to the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Special Marriage Act 1954. A new ground of divorce has been added to the existing list of grounds under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act namely adultery, cruelty, desertion, conversion to another religion, unsoundness of mind, virulent and incurable form of leprosy, venereal disease in a communicable form, renouncement of the world and not heard as being alive for a period of seven years or more. Section 27 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 also lays down similar grounds.

The new ground added is Irretrievable breakdown of marriage on the recommendations of the Law Commission of India in its 71st and 217th report and the observations of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in cases.

Either party entitled to divorce:

Under the new provision a petition for the dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce may be presented to the district court by either party to a marriage on the ground that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. The court however may not hold the marriage to have broken down irretrievably unless it is satisfied that the parties to the marriage have lived apart for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition. Once the court is satisfied, on the evidence that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, it shall, subject to the provisions of the Act, grant a decree of divorce.
Right of the Wife:

The wife has been granted the right to oppose the grant of a decree on the ground that the dissolution of the marriage will result in grave financial hardship to her. In case of a petition made by the wife on the ground of Irretrievable breakdown, the Court may order that the husband shall give for her and children as compensation which shall include a share in his share of the immovable property (other than inherited or inheritable immovable property) and by way of share in movable property.
Rights of the Children:

The court while granting a decree on the petition, shall consider all the circumstances, including the conduct of the parties to the marriage and the interests of those parties and of any children and if, the court is of the opinion that the dissolution of the marriage would result in grave financial hardship to the wife and that it would be wrong to dissolve the marriage, it shall dismiss the petition or stay the proceedings until arrangements have been made to eliminate the hardship. Also, the court’s satisfaction is necessary on the issue of adequate provision for the maintenance of children.

Change in ground of Divorce by Mutual Consent:

Two new provisos have also been added to the present section dealing with Mutual Consent in both the Acts, consequently the Court would now have the power to reduce the period specified to a lesser period and the court may waive off the requirement for moving the motion by both the parties, if it is satisfied that the parties to the marriage are not in a position to reconcile their differences.

Further, where one of the parties fails to appear before the court within a period of three years from the date of presentation of the petition for mutual consent the court may waive the requirement of moving the motion by both the parties.

The author of this Article is Monika Srivastava. She can be reached at monika@tcl-india.net